David Caines’s mischievous paintings examine the human world of culture, drawing on imagery from early film and photography, art history and education, theatre, dance and performance. He occasionally subverts or undermines this wistful imagery by inserting unwelcome intruders such as monsters, clowns, bears, cave dwellers and dolls – time tinkerers from other eras. Recently his paintings have recorded the goings-on in an imaginary art academy, lost somewhere in the middle of the 20th century. There is something off kilter with this particular institution: sculptors carve demonic idols and gnomes, creatures lurk in the studios, and the life models are extinct humans from the Pleistocene age.

"My paintings are skewed, awkward or futile moments holding their breath. The paint is mixed with joy and sadness. They are silent film stills, ritual and ridiculous. They rummage through the arts. Disinterred objects and images return – reanimated, reassembled and mutated. They are made to baffle. When a painting works in this way it might reveal an alternate reality, a hidden facet, a concealed perspective, the oddness of our world, or the absolute strangeness of living.”

'Unforeseen Circumstances' brings together paintings from the last two years, and work completed at David's recent residency at APT Studios.

The residency and exhibition at APT Studios & Gallery, were awarded to David as winner of the Lady Grantchester Prize in 2025,  part of the John Moore's Painting Prize.

The prize is supported by Winsor & Newton and in partnership with APT Studios & Gallery.